Police officer accused of threatening Chinese journalist
Hong Kong, July 16, 2013–Chinese authorities must conduct an independent and thorough investigation into reports that a plainclothes police officer said to be involved in an auto accident in Kunming City, Yunnan, threatened a television journalist trying to cover the collision, and damaged the news crew’s equipment, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today.
Journalists back petition against privacy law
CPJ called on Hong Kong’s government to withdraw a proposal that would limit journalists’ access to information about business leaders. The proposal would obstruct investigative reporting and affect the transparency of businesses, CPJ found. Bob Dietz, CPJ Program Coordinator for Asia, speaks to China’s South China Morning Post, on the downward trend for media with the proposed law. Click…
Taiwanese media sale could threaten press freedom
A media buyout in Taiwan which would put independent news outlets critical of China into the hands of a pro-Beijing media tycoon is cause for concern for the island’s press. Jimmy Lai, the outspoken mogul behind Hong Kong-based Next Media and the Apple Daily tabloid, is selling his Taiwan holdings to a group of businessmen…
Japan releases Chinese journalists–China’s up next
It’s not often we at CPJ find ourselves calling on other countries to release Chinese journalists from detention. But that’s just what happened yesterday. Hong Kong-based Phoenix TV contacted us to say that two of their journalists were among a group of 14 arrested by Japanese authorities over a disputed territory in the East China…
Chinese writers sentenced for ‘essays of inciting nature’
Chinese activists Lü Jiaping, his wife Yu Junyi, and an associate, Jin Andi, were imprisoned in 2010 without their families being informed. The full details of their 2011 trial and sentences were not made public until 2012, according to the English-language Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post.
Keeping a website alive behind the Great Firewall
Wednesday’s post, “Advice for colleagues on the digital front lines,” offered practical advice for keeping a website up and running in a hostile political environment. But such measures are not universally applicable. Sky Canaves, CPJ’s new East Asia and Internet consultant in Hong Kong, sent this reality check for Internet writers in China, where tighter…
Chinese hackers targeting human rights news sites
Nart Villeneuve has published a detailed summary of recent malware attacks on media and human rights groups who work on Chinese issues. He highlights a disturbing new trend. On Wednesday, Amnesty Hong Kong’s website was repurposed by hackers to infect visitors with a wide variety of nasty malware. The Nobel Prize’s website was also defaced earlier…